Stephen Miller rose in the White House ranks quickly as one of Trump’s most right wing advisors. At only 32, Miller has survived the ouster of Sebastian Gorka and Steve Bannon. In their wake, he has become one of the sole, hard right voices in the White House on issues like immigration. Miller will do press conferences from time to time. In one of his most memorable appearances, he verbally jousted with reporters over the Statue of Liberty. The statue’s quote, which welcomes refugees, shouldn’t be used, according to Miller, to characterize immigration policies. His justification was that the quote was added 17 years after the statue was finished.
Illegal Immigration Numbers
According to a 2016 report, illegal immigration has slowed in recent years. The number of illegal immigrants has also been declining for a decade, falling below 11 million. Pew Research pegged the highest level at 12 million in 2014. Tighter border security and shifting economics on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border are likely the reasons behind the drop. Of the ten states with the highest number of undocumented immigrants, Texas and Virginia were the only ones that saw a rise from 2010-2014.
Reactions from Across the Aisle
A few weeks ago, Trump received scorn from his base for cooperating with Democratic congressional leadership on immigration. It appeared that he was striking a new bipartisan tone, by circumventing Republicans on the issue. Now with this list of demands, cooperation on the matter is in doubt. The Democratic Congressional leadership, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, issued a joint statement expressing their dismay.
